A Lesson From This Hollywood Icon Could Help You Nail Your Employer Brand Headline

James Dean once said, “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”

If you’ve ever tried to craft an EVP, then you know that the headline, or ‘employer brand essence’, is a key component in driving emotion and piquing curiosity with candidates and employees.

Like James Dean hints, crafting a strong employer brand essence isn’t about changing the harsh realities – it’s about embracing the truths of your organization to arrive at something powerful, impactful and purposeful.

But let’s take a step back.

At Ph.Creative, we believe the traditional employer brand framework is flawed. We believe in creating EVP’s by using the premise that it’s not a one-way broadcast of strengths benefits and opportunities, but a value exchange that clearly articulates what a company wants, needs, expects and demands in return for the spoils on offer. It’s a two-way street.

If you can communicate that message effectively by illustrating what it’s really like, how someone is likely to feel, and what they must be prepared for on any given day, people are far more equipped to make an informed decision as to whether they have what it takes to thrive there and whether they want to take on the challenge.

We call this the ‘Give & Get’ employer brand framework. Using this methodology, you can lean into the harsh realities of your organization and tell talent audiences a powerful story.

So, take a page from James Dean’s book, adjust your sails and learn how to pique interest, convey a point of view and capture imagination in just a few words.

What is an employer brand essence?

On a basic level, an employer brand is how people describe what it’s like to work at your organization.

The employer brand essence, then, is an overarching positioning statement that serves as an accurate depiction of the intent and reality of the employee experience. It is a compelling, single idea that provides focus for creative expression and alignment to the corporate brand and the values at the core of the organization too.

Usually an aspirational headline, the brand essence exists to inspire and engage an audience by piquing their interest and drawing them in closer towards the company. Quite often, the brand essence will articulate intention and tap into the purpose of the organization. An effective brand essence will resonate with people’s values, align with lifestyle, ideals, and ambition.

A lot of organizations present the essence as one main publicly facing EVP. This could well be the reason that even many HR professionals confuse the difference between the employer brand essence and an EVP. Can you see how this can be a dangerous and even misleading prospect if that same brand essence IS your EVP?

How to craft a powerful employer brand essence

We often tackle the brand essence last because you need to be able to see and feel the entire story before you can start to craft these important words. You can’t distil something down, or sum something up until you have the entire story in front of you.

Have you ever written a speech, practiced it repeatedly and then condensed it down to a few trigger words that can be mentally unpacked again into everything you want to say? You can apply the same technique when you are working on your employer brand essence.

The way to test your employer brand essence is to see if there is room for interruption. If it’s taken literally and there’s no other interpretation to be found, then it’s probably not working hard enough, or capturing everything you want to say.

Our brain reacts emotionally ten times faster than we create rational thoughts, which means if we get the words of the brand essence right, our audience feels first, but that feeling can grow and change as the words settle in. When you choose words that have multiple interpretations, we force the audience to think as well.

If we resonate emotionally, immediately peak interest and solicit curiosity then we have started to successfully engage their imagination, and this becomes infinitely more powerful if we leave space for them to fill in some vital blanks. A lot of times, the best way to achieve this simple level of engagement is to only tell half a story and provoke the audience to complete the story for themselves based on the context of their lives.

Inspiration and real-world examples

To leave you with some inspiration, we’ve provided some powerful client examples below to give you a sense of what a successful employer brand essence could look like.

Remember James Dean’s lesson for us: adjust your sails, lean into the harsh realities of your organization and craft a few simple words that have the power to imprint on your audience. If you need to tackle the brand essence last, don’t worry. Being able to see and feel the whole story is key to creating something truly memorable and inspiring.

Blizzard Entertainment – ‘Find Your People’

Blizzard is filled with different, passionate people that geek out on lots of weird and wonderful things. It’s these differences that bind everyone together. Rather than not fitting in, Blizzard is a place where you fit in because you’re different and that one intangible sense of belonging is what defines them. With this in mind, ‘Find Your People’ was born.

VF Corporation – ‘Limit Less: Blur the line between a career and a calling’

‘Limit Less’ speaks to the size and experience of VF and their structure that provides an unrivaled ability to focus on what you’re there to do, without interference or distraction. It dials straight into the innate belief of thinking bigger and leveraging their capability to scale new heights, disrupt and lead the market rather than follow.

‘Blur the line between a career and a calling’ is a little long-winded for a brand essence, however after kicking it around for weeks, testing it on the VF team on 6 continents in 14 languages, we’d nailed the sentiment of passionate, commitment and a love for the outdoors lifestyle VF was fuelling at all costs

If you’re interested in learning more, my new book, ‘Give & Get Employer Branding’, is now available on Amazon and at all major book retailers.